Lasthénie de Ferjol’s Syndrome: A Tribute Paid by Jean Bernard to Jules Amédée Barbey D’Aurevilly

Abstract

The idea that memories could be transferred from one organism to another by administration of a “trained”; donor brain to a naive recipient seized both scientific and public attention in the 1960's and early 1970's. Georges Ungar was one of the earliest and strongest proponents of this idea, and he provided it extensive theoretical and experimental support. This paper reviews Ungar's work on memory transfer (and in particular on the scotophobin molecule), with an analysis of its successes and failures.     

On the edge: A tale of skaters and urban governance

The 'problem' of skating has been conflated with a 'problem' with young people in public spaces, reflecting a rise in fear of crime from the mid-twentieth century and referencing more general questions about public space and citizenship. My task in this paper is to highlight some of the tensions between skating and urban governance in Franklin Square, Hobart, the capital city of Tasmania in Australia. This task is indebted to ideas about governance and citizenship advanced by Nikolas Rose; about the proper city as conceived by Michel de Certeau; and about fortress strategies and species of spaces promulgated by Stephen Flusty. Franklin Square functions in two ways in this work. First, its examination encourages consideration of local cases. Second, it can be deployed as a heuristic device through which to explore the edges of public space and citizenship. The essay is intended to make two contributions to social and cultural geography, one enlarging on some well-rehearsed debates about situated and contested socio-spatial relations in what I hope are innovative ways, the other unsettling particular strategies that place skaters 'on the edge' and yet draw them into particular domains of citizenship via specific practices of urban governance.     

Mortimer Wheeler's Theatre of the Past

Abstract

This paper examines the nature of Mortimer Wheeler's work as a public archaeologist, and in particular his efforts to display the archaeological process to interested members of the public. By focusing on the excavations at Maiden Castle, Dorset, from 1934 to 1937 we compare Wheeler's stated philosophy of public archaeology with his practice in the field. At Maiden Castle the theatre of excavation was the centrepiece of a carefully marketed archaeological experience including tours, souvenirs, and a well-developed media strategy. By applying the commodity model of public archaeology as an analytical framework we highlight the sophistication and success of Wheeler's 'theatre of the past'. This analysis lays a foundation for further critical historical studies of both the public understanding of the past, and of Wheeler's life and works.     

Ghosts,Memory, and the Right to the Divided City: Resisting Amnesia in Beirut City Centre

Violently divided cities are incubators of ethnic conflicts. Under the auspices of postwar reconstruction, these cities are supposedly disciplined into peace through the regeneration of the city centre, including privatization, commercial adaptation and gentrification strategies. Such dynamics render city centre space amnesiac, with no reference to the history of sectarian violence, and exclusivist by limiting public access. Rather than foster peacebuilding, city centre regeneration exposes the dangerous weakness of the neoliberal peace built on accommodating ethnic and socioeconomic divisions. This paper connects Lefebvre's right‐to‐the‐city to non‐sectarian social movements’ struggle to forge participatory democracy in Beirut's city centre. A key aspect of these movements’ activities is to reprogramme memory—cosmopolitan and inclusivist—into the city centre, a project supporting peacebuilding.     

Remembrance as remaking: memories of the nation revisited

This article revisits Anthony Smith's landmark collection Myths and Memories of the Nation (1999) from the perspective of recent developments in cultural memory studies. It argues for a more clearly demarcated distinction between myths and memories which acknowledges cultural memory as a site of new experiential perspectives that often work against the authority of myths, seen as the unquestioned truths about the collective past. Drawing on studies of modern memory cultures, it presents a dynamic and generative model that construes memory in terms of cultural practices of remembrance. It shows that memory is not an unchanging legacy but rather a malleable resource for making shared stories about the past. Where Halbwachs (1925) presumed that social frameworks precede and shape memory, remembrance is presented here as a cultural force that helps to redefine social frameworks and to create links between hitherto unconnected imagined communities.     

The Use of the Bible by the Christian Human Rights Organizations Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) and International Justice Mission (IJM)

Abstract

This paper explores the use made of the Bible by two Christian human rights organizations: Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) and International Justice Mission (IJM), identifying the particular parts of Scripture appealed to, the hermeneutic adopted, and asks whether there are other resources in the Bible which they could use to inspire and inform their work. CSW with its focus on the persecuted Church most naturally draws its inspiration from the New Testament, especially the Epistles; whilst IJM whose work principally addresses other forms of injustice, makes greater appeal to the Old Testament. The biblical framework for IJM's work could be strengthened by a more sustained attention to Jesus' ministry as a model of human rights intervention and advocacy, by reflection on the significance of the Exodus as indicative of God's purposes for those who are oppressed, and by consideration of the book of James. CSW needs to integrate its commendable emphasis on Jesus' mission as exemplary for Christian human rights action with a holistic reading of the Bible and a greater exploration of the importance of the Church as the Body of Christ.     

Albert Wendt and the Problem of History

Poet and fiction writer Albert Wendt has taken on the task of correcting colonialist representations of the Pacific from an insider perspective. This involves him in questions of historical record and modes of recording history. The role of memory becomes central to the artist transposing oral traditions into written forms. Trained as an historian, Wendt progressively blurs the boundaries between imaginative and factual, personal and public re/constructions, aware of the illusions of both nationalistic nostalgia for lost perfection and colonialist 'objective' encyclopaedism. History both liberates and traps; in the poem 'Inside Us the Dead' and novels Pouliuli and Black Rainbow , Wendt looks for a postcolonial dynamic between postmodern deconstruction and representational texts that can be seen in terms of de Certeau's ideas of tactics and strategies.     

Preservation of Earthen Sites in Remote Areas: the Buddhist Monastery of Ajina Tepa,Tajikistan

Abstract

The Buddhist monastery of Ajina Tepa is one of the most significant in Central Asia as it was fully excavated using up-to-date archaeological methods and was extensively documented. The site is a sophisticated blend of earthen architectural forms, sculptural detail and wall painting decoration, all of which are unique in the area. The site is located in south Tajikistan along the Vahsh valley, about 13 km east from the modern city of Kurgan Tybe.

The aim of the paper is to give an overview of the UNESCO/Japan Trust Fund project 'Preservation of the Buddhist Monastery of Ajina Tepa, Tajikistan (Heritage of the Ancient Silk Roads)'. The paper describes the historical background, the main conservation threats, the analytical work in the selection of repair material, the preparatory work before conservation, the documentation activities, and the conservation work carried out at the site.     

Representation as work in ‘America's most historic city’

This paper examines how the practices of heritage tourism reproduce identities in and of Fredericksburg, Virginia. In particular, we focus on the everyday practices of tourism workers who are essential in the representation and reproduction of this heritage space. In so doing, we want to move away from research in geography that theorizes representation and embodiment as distinct realms of experience and inquiry. Instead, we argue that representation is work and within this very material process, city workers weave memory with history as they guide visitors through ‘America’s Most Historic City'. Through an examination of three of Fredericksburg's tourism work environments we show how representations succeed in reproducing heritage tourism spaces precisely because representation is work.     

From three Ottoman gates to three Serbian sites of memory: The performative rewriting of Belgrade from 1878 until today

ABSTRACT

This essay analyses how three entrances to Ottoman-era Belgrade have been reconstructed since 1878. It demonstrates how the rewriting of these places entailed silencing the Ottoman past and constructing sites of Serbian national memory. By examining city space as a palimpsest, it shows how a new national narrative has been written in relation to earlier Ottoman space, thus making the national narrative a mediator of the memory of the seemingly erased Ottoman past.     

Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan and the Theological Origins of Secular International Politics

Abstract

Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in Reinhold Niebuhr's scholarship. Many scholars have drawn upon Niebuhr's work in the run up to World War II when drawing analogies to the contemporary struggle with Islamic radicalism. This article explores Niebuhr's writings on Communism in the run up to Vietnam as another possible source for analogies to the current struggle. It concludes with an analysis of contemporary Islamic radicalism using the categories of Niebuhr's analysis. While neither period in Niebuhr's work provides a perfect analogy to the present, there are significant insights to be drawn from this later period in Niebuhr's writing.     

Archaeology and urbanism: railway stations and zoological gardens in the 19th-century cityscape

Abstract

Though later-historical and contemporary archaeology have added an important material dimension to key historical processes such as industrialization and colonialism, the phenomenon of urbanization has hitherto not been addressed. This paper argues for ‘an archaeology of the city’. Building on Habermas' work on the public sphere, it contends that the cityscape, just like the domestic sphere, is a domain for carving out social identities. It also contends that material agency can best be understood as a form of meaningful emergence through bricolage. The arguments are explored through an extensive empirical case study on zoos and railway stations in 19thcentury Europe. Both institutions developed around the same time, through the same liberal industrialism and often in each other's vicinity. Drawing on research into zoo studies, transport history, cultural history and urbanism, it is argued that zoos and stations were instrumental in transforming the 19th-century cityscape into a bourgeois space that provided gateways to the outside world.     

Searching for resonance: scientific patterns in Complicite's Mnemonic and A Disappearing Number

Abstract

After the international success of Mnemonic, Complicite have once again brought science and drama together in a new theatre piece, A Disappearing Number. Both plays place scientists in the limelight, though their 'scientific' content is very different: Mnemonic was based on the discovery of a Neolithic man in the Alps, and used neurology and archaeology to explore notions of memory and history; A Disappearing Number focuses on our fascination with infinity, and dramatises the 'mysterious and romantic mathematical collaboration' between G. H. Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan. The two pieces are, however, remarkably similar in plot and structure, and in their common exploration of the metaphorical and theatrical potential of scientific discourse. Moreover, they both use science as a narrative tool to explore our relation to time and mortality. This review presents them in parallel and examines the particular integration of ideas and aesthetics which characterises Complicite's work: a tireless search for connections, and a constant translation of ideas between different theatrical languages, be they verbal, visual or musical.     

Site and Community at Chunchucmil and Ancient Maya Urban Centers

Abstract

Classic Period lowland Maya urban centers often lack sharp boundaries due to progressive dispersal of residential settlement. This dispersal gives rise to questions about the concept of site and the notion of community affiliation. Research on settlement patterns at Chunchucmil, an urban center in NW Yucatan, Mexico, dating to the 5th and 6th centuries A.D., explores the issue of site boundaries and the social and economic implications of such boundaries. Detailed mapping, test pitting, and reconnaissance reveal that Chunchucmil had three densely occupied, concentric, contemporaneous zones of settlement covering between 20 and 25 sq km and inhabited by a population of up to 42,500. Data from both within and beyond the density thresholds marking the edge of the city imply the existence of communities whose boundaries do not always follow those of the site. A portion of the hinterland settlement close to the edge of the city shows stronger economic and social connections with the city, for example. These connections enable the delineation of Greater Chunchucmil, extending 5 km from Chunchucmil's center. The work at Chunchucmil also allows comparison with other large Maya cities that have been systematically documented. This comparison highlights considerable variability in Maya urban forms and in how these cities relate to their peripheries.     

Nicosia and its municipal administration during the very early years of British rule in Cyprus

Abstract

In recent years, the trauma concept has been applied to fiction in several literary studies. This article discusses the narrative mediation of traumatic experiences in selected Civil War novels, using narratological tools and focusing on the complex relationship between trauma, memory and narration. The authors use innovative narrative and representational strategies, such as a disrupted chronological order or intertextual references, to illustrate the paradoxical character of remembering and narrating trauma. These works highlight diverse aspects of the Greek Civil War, depart from conventional narrative modes and share common characteristics with so-called 'trauma fiction'.     

The role of the past in late medieval hidalgo historical writing and memory

ABSTRACT

This essay is structured around two themes: the writing of history and memory. On the one hand, it analyses the use of the past in Lope García de Salazar's Libro de las buenas andanças e fortunas (1471–5). His approach to history is imbued with nostalgia for a legendary past, and more specifically for a political arrangement between the Lord of Biscay and the lesser nobility (hidalgos) which ensured respect for their privileges. This is set in contrast to a second group of material, legal documentation relating to the town of Escalante in Cantabria. Historically under seigniorial control, the inhabitants created a collective memory that framed a past prior to the fourteenth century which was free of lords and feudal obligations.     

'Common women' or 'women of free morals': the suppression of prostitution in post-war Thessaloniki (1945–1955)

Abstract

During the German occupation (1941–4), the once multicultural city of Thessaloniki underwent an unprecedented decline in population, at the same time experiencing a degradation of its morals and pre-war social values with the flourishing of brothels supplying sexual services to the occupying forces. Post-war Thessaloniki, however, presented a totally different picture. Within the framework of improving the quality of society, prostitution came to be regarded as a leftover from past barbarian times that not only threatened the moral and ethical standards of society but even put the very existence of the Greek race in jeopardy. A campaign of moral cleansing was introduced, which was based on repressive measures rather than on any meaningful societal reform. Hence, the 'priestesses of love' became scapegoats for those in power who envisaged the creation of a modern, virtuous city by closing down its brothels; a city that wanted to sever all ties with its past merely by eradicating rather than by solving its problems and ethical dilemmas.     

The Texture of Heritage: A Reading of the 750th Anniversary of Stockholm1

This paper employs Henri Lefebvre's term ‘texture’ as a means of analysing a series of events that took place in June 2002 to mark the 750th anniversary of Sweden's capital city. The resulting case study demonstrates that heritage is the present‐day use of the past and that selection and interpretation shift according to contemporary demands. The latter prompts a continuing series of ‘particular actions’ (Lefebvre) that require explaining and elucidating to new audiences in fresh contexts. This provides heritage with its impetus whilst also accounting not only for its range and reach but also for its richness as a source of study.     

Fear of the city 1882-1967: Edward Hopper and the discourse of anti-urbanism

This paper traces the extent to which some of the major cityscape representations of the American 'Realist' painter, Edward Hopper, have contributed to the production and articulation of the discourse of anti-urbanism in American culture. Following an introductory background to this discourse, the paper discusses the development of Realism in American art, and how the urban representations that emerged were a response to the rapidly changing, early twentieth-century American city. A brief biographical account of Edward Hopper is presented to explore the intertextual influences behind his anti-urban sentiments, and how these translated into the unique form of Realism for which Hopper is renowned. This sets the stage for a reading of four key Hopper works that are suggestive of the anti-urban discourse: Night Shadows, Nighthawks, Approaching a City and Sunday . The powers of representation and the artist's popularity have fed into the discourse of anti-urbanism - a discourse that has a material effect on urban life in America.